Category: Space Stations

Space stations in orbit or planned

Sony’s latest State of Play highlights three incredible sci-fi games coming to PlayStation 5

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We’re now halfway through the first trimester of 2025, which means that video game companies everywhere are rushing to show off some of the biggest releases arriving in the near future and 2026. On Feb. 12, Sony’s first State of Play stream of the year revealed several fantastic-looking titles from partners all over the world, and adventures set in outer space had a huge presence. Space-set science fiction games are finding lots of success right now. So much so that it’s becoming hard to keep track of them all, especially…

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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin targeting late spring for 2nd launch of powerful New Glenn rocket

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WASHINGTON, D.C.  —  The second launch of Blue Origin’s huge New Glenn rocket could be just a few months away. The 320-foot-tall (98-meter-tall) New Glenn lifted off for the first time on Jan. 16 from Florida’s Space Coast. The test flight was a success; the rocket’s upper stage successfully carried its payload, a test version of Blue Origin’s new Blue Ring spacecraft platform, to Earth orbit. A secondary objective didn’t go so well; New Glenn’s first-stage booster failed to stick its landing on a ship at sea. (This was the…

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Heart Health

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4 Min Read Heart Health Jessica Meir conducts cardiac research in the space station’s Life Sciences Glovebox. Credits: NASA Science in Space: February 2025 February was first proclaimed as American Heart Month in 1964. Since then, its 28 (or 29) days have served as an opportunity to encourage people to focus on their cardiovascular health. The International Space Station serves as a platform for a variety of ongoing research on human health, including how different body systems adapt to weightlessness. This research includes assessing cardiovascular health in astronauts during and…

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Tiny plasma jets on the sun drive the elusive solar wind, Europe’s Solar Orbiter reveals

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Solar scientists have found tiny, short-lived jets of energy on our sun to be the primary drivers of the solar wind, marking a step toward decoding our star’s elusive behavior and, eventually, refining predictions of its storms. The “solar wind” refers to pockets of energetic particles blasted out from the sun. These particles are occasionally directed toward Earth, like last summer when a rare cluster of such storms rained on our planet and sparked breathtaking auroras across the globe — likely the strongest auroras we’ve seen in centuries. The solar…

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Gamma rays create Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World, but how do they work in the real world?

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Captain America: Brave New World opens in theaters globally on Valentine’s Day 2025, bringing with it a popular expansion to Hulk-lore, the Red Hulk. Like all Hulks across various forms of media, there is a good chance that the origins of the Red Hulk in the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are tied to a form of high-energy radiation called “gamma-rays.” Gamma rays originate from a variety of sources in both the Marvel Universe and the real world. Primary among non-fictional cosmic gamma-ray sources, are supernovas, neutron…

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NASA’s Advancements in Space Continue Generating Products on Earth  

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The cover of Spinoff 2025, NASA’s annual publication that chronicles commercial products born from space technology, is a detailed view of the lunar surface captured by cameras on the Orion spacecraft on a close approach of the Moon during the Artemis I mission. Credit: NASA The latest edition of NASA’s Spinoff publication, which highlights the successful transfer of agency technology to the commercial sector, is now available online. For nearly 25 years, NASA has supported crew working in low Earth orbit to learn about the space environment and perform research…

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Win a chance to see a SpaceX rocket launch thanks to Bethesda, creators of ‘Starfield’

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2023’s ‘Starfield‘ was a fascinating (albeit flawed) game that nailed the feeling of discovery among the stars and the pursuit of science in a fictional future. Now, shortly after the release of its Shattered Space expansion, Xbox and Bethesda are teaming up with Lonestar to celebrate the launch of the long-awaited Freedom mission, and one lucky fan could witness the event at the Kennedy Space Center. The official Bethesda website unveiled the opportunity on Feb. 7, stating that one ‘Starfield’ fan (plus one companion) will get a chance to watch…

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NASA moves up return date for Boeing Starliner astronauts after swapping SpaceX Dragon spacecraft

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NASA has decided to shuffle around some SpaceX Dragon capsules in order to launch its Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station as soon as possible. The agency is now targeting March 12 for the launch of Crew-10, which will carry three astronauts and a cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS). The four crewmembers are scheduled to ride a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit, and their seats on that rocket will be aboard the Crew Dragon Endurance capsule, NASA announced Tuesday (Feb. 11). Their arrival to the…

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Best sci-fi comedies of all time

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Out of this world laughs and galactic giggles ahead in this list of the best sci-fi comedies of all time. One of the most mesmerizing things about the science fiction genre is the sheer scope of ideas that can be dreamt up, and this aspect lends itself perfectly to comedy; with something so out-of-this-world, there’s a real opportunity to make people laugh. There are crazy and bewildering plots spanning generations, from the twisted future of Idiocracy to the bulging-brained alien invasion of Mars Attacks! To put it simply, there’s a…

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NASA picks SpaceX to launch Pandora exoplanet mission

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A small NASA exoplanet probe now has a ride to Earth orbit. The agency announced on Monday afternoon (Feb. 10) that it has picked SpaceX to launch Pandora, a 716-pound (325-kilogram) satellite designed to help scientists better understand how our understanding of exoplanets‘ atmospheres are affected by changes in their host stars. Pandora will lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than this fall, according to NASA officials. Pandora will head to low Earth orbit. Once there, the satellite will observe at least 20 known transiting exoplanets —…

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